What Makes a Blockbuster?

What makes a blockbuster? And no I am not talking about the old film rental store, how I miss those....

According to Wikipedia, a blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful.  Judging from this definition, I'm not sure I like the term blockbuster. It creates a belief that movies are just meant to be giant cash grabs, instead of meaningful pieces of art. 

16'' x 48'' Blockbuster Fine Art Panorama Print

Anytime I think of the term blockbuster, I roll my eyes. I think of superhero movies, with their over-the-top CGI special effects, formulaic stories, and just non-stop action that suppose to make the movie good. I think of all the money that Michael Bay's Transformers franchise has made, and how forgettable each film is. I think of just the blockbuster movie burnout that I seem to be going through. Where movies don't feel fresh, there are no new ideas within them. It just feels like a simple story created to make tons of money. 

Even down to the marketing of movie posters, blockbusters have this overcrowded design. It lets you know it's going to be this packed action adventure, with super famous movie stars, that just screams money. 

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So when the class decided we were going to watch Jaws, I rolled my eyes. I expected these boring aspects that a normal blockbuster has to be in Jaws.  I only had seen Jaws once and while I really respected the story behind the making of Jaws, it was just never a go-to movie for me. 

But after watching Jaws again in class, boy did I have a fun time! All my preconceived expectations were blown out of the water. I was enraptured by the suspense the film had. I loved the small-town beach setting the film has, because nothing EVER bad happens in small towns 😂! It really showed me that blockbusters weren't always these giant money grabbers. 

I really appreciated the horror aspect the film had too! It reminded me of Jordan Peele films. The mystery around whether there is a shark or no shark in the water reminded me of Get Out when you know something weird is going on but can't place what it is. 

In doing some outside research about Jaws, I found that Jordan Peele is a HUGE fan of the film. For example, in US, the beach scene takes a lot of inspiration from Jaws, even the young boy wearing a Jaws shirt. In an interview I learned that Jordan Peele had to fight hard to get the rights for the Jaws shirt to be featured in his film. 

And while I haven't seen NOPE yet, it is also supposed to have a lot of similarities to Jaws. Jaws truly is a staple movie that has influenced so much of the industry. Even the posters have a similar looking-up motif to them. 

Now going back to the topic of blockbusters, I wouldn't label Jaws just as a blockbuster. It's a suspense, almost horror genre film. Blockbuster just reflects that it was largely successful and made a lot of money. This is what I wish the modern film industry understood more. They don't need to make big, budget Marvel cash grabs but they can also make quaint stories about things as simple as "the fear of sharks" and it can still be just as successful! It feels like Hollywood has become this money-first, story-second industry, but Jaws reminded me that new and inventive stories should always come first, and the money is just an extra reward.